3.3 Research instrument and design

3.3 Research instrument and design

Research design plays a vital role to link data with question under discussion and it sits between two. Basically, it is plan which includes research instrument, strategy, procedure and sampling &population (Zhang, 2000).

The aim of this research work is to pinpoint the barriers in implementation of environmental management system. As a primary source of information questionnaire as a research instrument has been designed that covers all aspect of this research work.

Firstly, an assessment of EMS and its implementation in industrial sector of Pakistan has been carried out. In this regarding information has been collected from Ministry of Environment, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA-Pak) , Ministry of textile , Ministry of commerce and Trade , Federal Chamber of Commerce , ISO consulting firms and Cleaner Production Centre besides with other similar information sources. After having information and analysis a questionnaire has been used as a source to collect primary source of data.

The focus and span of this questionnaire includes the questions about assessing the ‘role of EMS as tool for sustainable development’ constraints in implementation of EMS in manufacturing industry and its environmental and economic impacts. This Questionnaire is used as a primary source of information for survey on the basis of which further analysis and discussion has been carried out.

Questionnaire comprises total fifteen questions that covers three main area of research work labelled as

·         Is EMS a tool for sustainable development &cleaner production in organisations?

·         Identification of constraints in implementation of EMS in manufacturing sector and its environmental and socio-economic impact.

·         Perception about the benefits of EMS implementation and future trends regarding adoption of EMS.

Questionnaire sample has been labelled in appendix A.      

In first part of questionnaire, the respondents have been asked to express their views about the role of EMS as a tool for sustainable development and cleaner production. Question in the middle portion of the questionnaire belongs to barrier and constraints in implementation of EMS. Finally, last few questions composed to identify the awareness about the EMS implementation & adoption and perception about its impacts.

Participants has been requested to provide information about their designation (Massoud et al: 2010) and company, so that the reliability of the response can be assessed. Moreover, target audience has been asked to provide information about willingness of the companies to adopt EMS in future. The focus is to explore the experience of the industrial sector regarding the benefit enjoyed and constrained & barrier encountered in implementation of EMS (Christie et al: 1995).

Before conducting the actual survey, questionnaire has been reviewed and discussed with supervisor of this research work and necessary amendments has been made to ensure the quality and relevance with area of study.

Total sample of this research consists of 90 target audience. This audience has been divided into environmental consultants and industrial representatives with population of 45 and 45 percent accordingly.